Friday

Farrell will receive the Lela Thompson Award for Enduring Contribution to Wilmington Theater on March 14 during the StarNews Media Wilmington Theater Awards.

When Debbie Scheu moved to Wilmington in 1991, one of the first things she did was to see a show at Thalian Hall. But Scheu, who's designed costumes for local theater companies Opera House Theatre Co. and Thalian Association Community Theatre for more than 25 years, wasn't quite prepared for what she saw in "Mame."

"There's a lot of costumes in that show, and the wardrobe was just over the top," Scheu said of the musical, which is set in the 1920s and '30s, with locations from New York City to the Deep South. "I was like, 'I can't believe this is a community theater group. Where are they getting these costumes?' I couldn't believe the quality of the clothes."

The clothes, of course, belonged to Peggy Farrell, the Emmy-winning costume designer who worked in Wilmington theater and, more prominently, in film and television, while operating a world-class, 30,000-square-foot costume shop in the Port City for more than two decades. Her collection, which Farrell sold when she retired in 2006, was legendary, and as her pieces found their ways onto the Wilmington stage, she both influenced and mentored plenty of local designers along the way.

On March 14, Farrell will receive the Lela Thompson Award for Enduring Contribution to Wilmington Theater at the seventh annual StarNews Media Wilmington Theater Awards at Thalian Hall. The show, which will be hosted by Chandler Davis, will also feature award presentations and performances from the shows nominated for Best Play and Best Musical.

"I was very surprised," Farrell, 84, said of her award during a phone interview from her Wilmington home. "I feel really honored by it."

Los-Angeles-based costume designer Alonzo Wilson is a Wilmington native who graduated from Hoggard High School in 1983 and who has gone on to acclaim for his work on HBO's "Treme" and other projects. He calls Farrell "the Bette Davis of costume designers. You would ask her a question, and she'd kind of look at you, take a long drag on her cigarette, and then answer you." (As it happens, Farrell actually worked with Davis, among other stars, during her nearly 60-year career.)

Farrell hired Wilson for one of his first film industry jobs, costume supervisor on locally shot 1990 TV movie "The Lost Capone," and helped him get his first design job on 1992 indie "Allen and Naomi."

"She's just a very humble, regular person who has a great deal of talent," said Wilson, who visited with Farrell when he was in Wilmington last week. "She let us do our job, but was very free with her knowledge as well: 'Here's how you do this, here's a better way to do that.'"

"When I became a designer I tried to become that same kind of person," he added. "Kind to the crew, never yelling or having artistic tantrums."

Indeed, Farrell's generosity is one of the things almost anyone you ask about her will mention.

"She was very generous of her time and with the resources that she had," said Tony Rivenbark, executive director of Thalian Hall and a past Lela Thompson Award winner. "She had such real, authentic vintage clothing. The look of the shows, especially the period shows, was great."

In 1991, Farrell's friend Joyce Fernando nominated Farrell to the board of the Thalian Association, on which Farrell served for 15 year. She also became the theater group's go-to designer, while also working on shows for Opera House and even a musical, "Ebenezer," for the University of North Carolina Wilmington's department of theater. In 2003, a studio at the Hannah Block Historic USO/Community Arts Center, which the Thalian Association runs for the city of Wilmington, was named in her honor.

"A theater company couldn't be more fortunate than to get Peggy," Fernando said. "It really lifted up the company."

But Farrell didn't just open her costume shop's doors to the Thalians. She lent to other theater companies and independent film productions for nominal fees if not for free, while rentals to larger-scale film, TV and commercial productions helped pay the bills. Her free-lending ways were made even more impressive by the quality of her collection, which she built up over 50 years and contained pieces dating back to the 1860s. And while she wasn't known to preach, and would even ask less experienced designers for their opinions, her matter-of-fact advice and common-sense know-how -- often delivered with her trademark dry wit -- was just as valuable as her clothes.

"I hung on her every word," Scheu said. "It meant so much that I got to work with someone with her level of expertise. She was a role model beyond compare."

Farrell's warehouse "was like the Library of Congress. It was like having every painting in the world available to me as an artist," Scheu said. "I learned from the clothes -- that's a dress from the 1860s, that's how they did it -- but also from how she handled them and how she treated them. They weren't behind glass, they were there to be used."

A show business life

Farrell was born in New York City and grew up in a show business family. Her grandfather was an actor in silent movies, but mostly worked as a stuntman.

"They didn't have many breaks for actors back then," Farrell said. "The ones that got the breaks, we all know who they are."

Her mother, Agnes, was a wardrobe supervisor on Broadway who, as Farrell tells it, practically ran the shows.

"My mother was a legend in her own time," Farrell said, and she credits her mom with giving her a sewing machine and teaching her how to sew.

"These days, many wardrobe people don't know how to sew," Farrell said. "They consider it beneath them. To me it was an art, it wasn't just a job."

She's not kidding about her sewing chops. In 1980 she authored a book, "Counted Cross-Stich Patchwork Design," that you can still buy on Amazon.com.

In 1978, Farrell won her first Emmy Award for costume design for the seven-hour ABC miniseries "Holocaust" starring Meryl Streep. She followed that up with another Emmy in 1993 for "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles," which shot largely in Wilmington. She liked the area so much that she moved Farrell's Costumes, Ltd. to the Port City from New York in 1991.

Her distinction as a designer was her meticulous attention to detail, and she could often be found in the New Hanover County Public Library's North Carolina Room researching a film project or a play.

"I liked the history of the costumes," Farrell said. "I'd do a lot of reading" to get them right.

"She did her research," Wilson said. "And she turned that into a business. 'Let's get this right.' Not just, 'Well, this is OK.'"

In a 2006 interview with the StarNews for a story about her retirement and the selling of her collection, Farrell said “on some levels my work hasn’t been about costume, but about character and story … I love history and I try to project my ideas into a mind’s eye image of the character in his or her environment. I think on how they might dress based on who they are, where and when they lived and economic status. Costumes help actors to create the big picture, their role. Some of the pleasures of my job happen in the fitting room as each idea becomes a reality. When an actor -- man, woman or child -- looks in the mirror and can see the character they are to play, rather than themselves, that’s good."

But while her work drew acclaim, Farrell could be her own toughest critic.

She overcame moments of self-doubt, however, by using a mix of real-world experience and natural talent to get the job done for massive projects like "Holocaust," which was her first high-profile costume design job.

"She approached it from a layman's perspective, digging for the real truth," Wilson said. "If you do that you can't fail."

Even after winning two Emmys, however, Farrell never left the world of theater behind and went out of her way to stay involved with the action on the Wilmington boards.

"She grew up in the theater with her mother, and I think theater was her first love," Fernando said.

Wilson credits Farrell's theater background with laying the groundwork for her success -- "She knew how to make things look real" -- and Farrell especially loved working on shows with children. "Annie," which she worked on multiple productions of, was a favorite, checking two of her most important boxes: a period show with kids.

"They drove me nuts but I loved them," Farrell said.

Two of her three children are still living, and she's got five grandchildren and multiple great-grandchildren.

These days, Farrell has limited mobility and is largely confined to a wheelchair, but still makes it out to the theater from time to time. She gave up cigarettes years ago.

Farrell passes her time reading and visiting with friends. And even though awards "never came first in my mind," she said, she'll have a big crowd acknowledging her and her accomplishments at the Wilmington Theater Awards on March 14.

"She's had some recognition," Wilson said. "But she should've had more."

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.